Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-12-14
DEBT LEGISLATION.

| had the honor to recommend, and the
General Assembly passed at the special ses-
sion of 1887, an act entitled Gan act to pro-
vide for the recovery by motion of taxes and
certain debts due tie Commonwealth for
the payment of which papers purporting to
be genuine coupons of the Common wealth
have been rendered" under which it was
believed that the State would be enabled to
proceed against delioquent tax payers who
had rendered coupons 10 payment of taxes,
but had not paid their taxes 10 coupons or
money. It was believed the State in this
way could lawfully compel the taxpayer to
either prove his coupons to be genuine and
deliver them to her officers, or pay in mon
ey. Many tax payers had rendered c0u-
pons in payment of their taxes, and then
Immediately disposed of the coupons to
other tax pay ers, whereby the State neither
received money nor coupons. 10 other in
stances the tax pay ers whose property had
been levied upon after tender Of coupons
sued the Treasurer aud recovered the money
paid without delivering the coupons, and
the State received nothing for the taxes.
Immediately after the adjournment OF the
General Assembly, Mr.. j. P. Copper and
other English citizens procured from the
| Circuit Court of the United States fer the
| Eastern district Of Virginia an injunction
restraining the Auditor of Public Accounts,
the Attorney General, and all the attorneys
| f the Commonwealth aud county treasu-
rers in the State from doing auy act TO pu,
the law in force,
With the view of testing the legality OF
such proceedings on the part of the Federal
judge, the Attorney General and the attor.
neys for the Commonwealth for several
counties nevertheless instituted the suits
required aud proceeded to obtain judgments
against the delinquent taxpayers.
! For this the Attorney General and attor.
neys for the Common wealth for Fauquier
aud Loudoun counties were found guilty OF
contempt by the Circuit Court of the United
States, aud each were fined and Imprisoned
until the fues should be paid and they
should have dismissed all pending suits and
enter the Judgments which had been paid
satisfied. Tue officers positively refused to
obey the order aud were imprisoned.
| The State at once employed counsel and
obtained writs of ha6eos corpus from tie
| Supreme Court of the United States, under
which the officers were released upon theil
recognisance to await the decision of the
court. The cases were fully argued on the
14fh Of November by counsel employed by
| the State and decio ed on the 5th instan
| The full text of the decision has not YET
reached me, but the act approved the 12Sh
of May, 1887, is recognized az valid, and
the proceedings of the Circuit Court of the
| Unit ed States restraining the ofiic RS Of the
State from enforcing the act, and imprison
| ing them for conforming thereto, are con.
demned and reversed as without authority
and against the Eleventh amendment to the
Constitution of the United States.
| Ia view of the recent decision of the Su
preme Court of the United States, it may
be reasonable to suppose that the bondhold.
ers, as soon as they consi der that decision,
will be disposed to make debt settlement
whose obligations can be faithfully carried
ont without an increa- of taxation.
would suggest to the General Assembly the
passage of a joint resolution suspending fol
reasonable time the institution Of all lega
proceedings under the act passed May 18th,
1887. l have assurances which I deem en-,
titled to confidence that the course / have
suggested, if adopted, will be attended with
results satisfactory to all concerned.
THE CODE.